Israel foreign minister lands in Bahrain on landmark visit

Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid began a landmark visit Thursday to Bahrain where he will open the Israeli embassy one year after the US-brokered normalisation of ties.

The Israeli top diplomat touched down at Manama airport, where a Gulf Air plane was due to take off for the first commercial flight between the two countries shortly afterwards.

Lapid is making Israel's first bilateral ministerial visit to Bahrain, part of a thaw in regional relations after the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan also established ties last year under agreements known as the Abraham Accords.


However, anger simmers in some quarters over the move, which broke with decades of Arab consensus that there would be no relations with Israel while the Palestinian question remains unresolved.

Protesters burned tyres on the outskirts of Manama early Thursday, sending clouds of black smoke into the air, and the hashtag #BahrainRejectsZionists in Arabic was circulating on social media.